FiLDB : An Architecture for Securely Connecting Databases to the Internet

by Hermansson, Tobias

Abstract (Summary)

Today more and more Information systems exist and they contain more and more information. Many information systems contain information about people that is secret or sensitive. Such information should not be allowed to leak from a database. This problem grows more and more as databases are made available via the Internet.There have been a number of publicised occasions where hackers have passed security barriers and got information that is not intended to be publicly available. There have also been cases where the administrators of systems have made mistakes, so that classified information was published on the Internet.The FiLDB architecture uses existing technology together with new components to provide an environment in which databases can be connected to the Internet without losing security. Two databases, with physical separation between them, are used as a security measure. Secret information is stored only in an internal database, which is separated from the Internet. An external database contains information which is to be used from the Internet, and hence sensitive information is not stored in this database.